Prince Harry and team reach South Pole

By Andrew Carey, CNN

Updated 10:05 AM ET, Sat December 14, 2013

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Photos:Prince Harry reaches South Pole

Prince Harry reaches South Pole – Prince Harry, left, and Ivan Castro touch the pole as they and their fellow adventurers reach the South Pole as part of their Walking With the Wounded charity trek on Friday, December 13, in Antarctica. The Virgin Money South Pole Allied Challenge 2013, of which Prince Harry is patron, will see the participants race across three degrees to the South Pole.

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Photos:Prince Harry reaches South Pole

Prince Harry reaches South Pole – Prince Harry, left, and Margaux Mange of Team U.S. pose at the South Pole after more than three weeks pulling sleds across the frozen wastes of Antarctica. The group stood at the bottom of the world at midday.

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Photos:Prince Harry reaches South Pole

Prince Harry reaches South Pole – Members of Team U.K., Team Commonwealth and Team U.S. pose as they reach the South Pole. The teams trekked 15 kilometers to 20 kilometers per day and endured temperatures as low as -45 C and 50 mph winds as they pulled their 70 kilogram sleds to the South Pole.

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Photos:Prince Harry reaches South Pole

Prince Harry reaches South Pole – The teams trek with their sleds in Antarctica. All 12 injured service personnel from Britain, America, Canada and Australia have overcome life-changing injuries and undertaken challenging training programs to prepare for the conditions in Antarctica.

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Photos:Prince Harry reaches South Pole

Prince Harry reaches South Pole – Prince Harry and the Walking With the Wounded teams leave Novo, Antarctica, for their second base camp at 87 degrees south, the starting point for the race.

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Photos:Prince Harry reaches South Pole

Prince Harry reaches South Pole – Prince Harry pulls the pulk guiding U.S. team member Ivan Castro, who is blind, as he takes part in ski training near Novo, Antarctica.

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Photos:Prince Harry reaches South Pole

Prince Harry reaches South Pole – Prince Harry and Dominic West make notes on how much each individual and their kit weight.

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Photos:Prince Harry reaches South Pole

Prince Harry reaches South Pole – Prince Harry looks at the start line in Antarctica.

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Photos:Prince Harry reaches South Pole

Prince Harry reaches South Pole – The prince unloads equipment from the plane.

Prince Harry reaches South Pole – Britain's Queen Elizabeth II examines a jacket presented by a member of Team USA as her grandson looks on during a reception at Buckingham Palace in London on November 13 ahead of the Walking With the Wounded South Pole Allied Challenge.

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Photos:Prince Harry reaches South Pole

Prince Harry reaches South Pole – Ed Parker, left, co-founder of Walking With the Wounded and team mentor of Team USA, Prince Harry and Queen Elizabeth examine a pulk belonging to Team U.K. during a reception to meet the three teams of wounded servicemen and servicewomen.

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Photos:Prince Harry reaches South Pole

Prince Harry reaches South Pole – Prince Harry attends the Walking With the Wounded South Pole Allied Challenge departure event at Trafalgar Square on November 14 in London.

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Prince Harry reaches South Pole – Prince Harry helps take down a tent during a cold chamber training exercise with the British team at Nuneaton in central England on September 17.

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Prince Harry reaches South Pole – The Prince and his four teammates were subjected to ambient temperatures of -35 C over a 20-hour period in the chamber.

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Story highlights

Prince Harry and a team made up of servicemen and women reach the South Pole

Organizers called off competitive aspect of the charity event

The team trekked more than 200 miles

Prince Harry and a trekking team made up of servicemen and women reached the South Pole on Friday, organizers for the Walking With The Wounded charity said.

Three teams of seven participants each, representing the United Kingdom, United States and the Commonwealth, which consists of several countries long affiliated with the British Empire, took part in the charity event.

Originally, it was a race among the three teams to reach the South Pole, but organizers called off the competitive aspect because it was putting undue strain on the participants.

Harry -- himself a member of Britain's armed forces, having served in Afghanistan and elsewhere -- has had a long association with this charity.

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In several ways, he's been preparing for this latest mission for a long time. That includes taking part in a Walking With The Wounded expedition to the North Pole -- even plunging into the Arctic Ocean's freezing waters -- in 2011 before withdrawing to attend his brother William's wedding. More recently, he traveled to Iceland for training and even spent 24 hours in an industrial freezer in preparation for the South Pole trek.